Southampton City Clinical Commissioning Group is consulting over plans to close Bitterne Walk-in Centre after the facility won a reprieve in October 2014.
Update June 17: there's now an online survey from this link
Plans to axe the centre were announced last year, but were later dropped in the face of widespread opposition and calls for consultation.
Care in the community
The CCG introduces its consultation on its website, saying that it can “only spend our money once” and that more care in the community is needed given the growing number of residents living with long-term conditions.
Writing on his website, Conservative Itchen MP Royston Smith says he thinks the centre could be run more cost effectively, that he has concerns that those on the east of the city will be left poorly served, and that “the principle of this service is that although we do not all need to use the centre regularly, we are all reassured to know it is available when we most need it. I wish to assure you I will do everything I can to represent your views to the CCG throughout the consultation.”
'Exactly the same proposal'
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“I am also concerned that the CCG have gone away, had six months to think about it and will return putting forward exactly the same proposal,” says Roytson Smth.
'Money wasted on NHS reorganisation'
Before the general election various parties made the Bitterne Walk-in Centre part of their campaigns. As we reported, former MP John Denham said that in Southampton over £16 million was wasted on the NHS reorganisation that no one wanted – “more than ten times the money that would be saved by closing the Bitterne Walk-in Centre” – while the TUSC hailed the reprieve as a “campaign victory”.
The consultation and supporting documents are available from the CCG's website at the bottom of their page here. The proposal is here as a PDF, and a feedback form – that appears to have to be printed out and then returned by Freepost – is here as a .docx file.
Update June 17: there's now an online survey from this link
The deadline for responses is 5pm on Friday 4 September 2015
